G.R. No. L-20329 Case Digest

G.R. No. L-20329 March 16, 1923

The Standard Oil Company of New York, petitioner

vs Joaquin Jaramillo, respondents

Ponente: Street

Facts:

This is a demurrer interposed by the respondents, Jaramillo, register of deeds of the City of Manila, to an original petition of the Oil Company seeking peremptory mandamus to compel the respondent to record in the proper register a document purporting to be a chattel mortgage executed by Gervasia de la Rosa in favor of the Oil Company.

Gervasia was the lessee of a parcel of land situated in Manila. The clauses in said document describing the property intended to be thus mortgage are expressed in the following words:

Now, therefore, the mortgagor hereby conveys and transfer to the mortgage, by way of mortgage, the following described personal property, situated in the City of Manila, and now in possession of the mortgagor, to wit:

(1) All of the right, title, and interest of the mortgagor in and to the contract of lease hereinabove referred to, and in and to the premises the subject of the said lease;

(2) The building, property of the mortgagor, situated on the aforesaid leased premises.

In Jaramillo's examination, it was not a chattel mortgage.

Held:

The position taken by the respondent is untenable; and it is his duty to accept the proper fee and place the instrument on record. The duties of a register of deeds in respect to the registration of chattel mortgage are of a purely ministerial character; and no provision of law can be cited which confers upon him any judicial or quasi-judicial power to determine the nature of any document of which registration is sought as a chattel mortgage.

In the light of what has been said it becomes unnecessary for us to pass upon the point whether the interests conveyed in the instrument now in question are real or personal; and we declare it to be the duty of the register of deeds to accept the estimate placed upon the document by the petitioner and to register it, upon payment of the proper fee.

The demurrer is overruled; and unless within the period of five days from the date of the notification hereof, the respondent shall interpose a sufficient answer to the petition, the writ of mandamus will be issued, as prayed, but without costs. So ordered.